The history of highrise (23 to 150 meters height) buildings in the Philippines probably began with the construction of the 6-storey Manila Hotel in 1912, which is regarded to be the first true modern high rise highrise building in the country.<ref name=FB>Manila Hotel. Filipiniana Blogsphere. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.</ref> However, at the time of its completion, it was not considered as the tallest structure in Manila or in the Philippines as a whole, since there were numerous cathedrals, churches, and other buildings that are taller but have no available record of their actual height measurements. Early highrise buildings in Metro Manila were constructed within Manila proper, but most were destroyed during the Battle of Manila in World War II. Construction of high-rise buildings also shifted from Manila to its surrounding area, including the transformation of Makati from a worthless swampland into the country's undisputed financial and business center in the 1950s. Although there were numerous high-rise buildings standing in the metropolis, the first true skyscraper (150 meter building) to rise in Metro Manila, and in the Philippines as a whole, was during the completion of the 44-storey Pacific Plaza Condominium in 1992, which incidentally has a 150 meter ground to architectural top height.